President of India presents copy of book on Rashtrapati Nilayam to Governor Narasimhan

President of India
presents copy of book on Rashtrapati Nilayam to Governor Narasimhan

The President of India, Shri
Pranab Mukherjee presented a copy of a book on Rashtrapati Nilayam,
Secunderabad toShri ESL Narasimhan, Governor of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh
today (December 21, 2015) at Rashtrapati Nilayam, Secunderabad. Ms.
Anuradha Naik, Conservation architect from
Hyderabad,who has authored the chapters on Bolarum and the Rashtrapati
Nilayamof the book, was also present on the occasion.

The book titled ‘The
Presidential Retreats of India’ which features the Rashtrapati Nilayam and The
Retreat at Mashobra was commissioned by the President’s Secretariat and Indira
Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA). It has been published by
Publications Division, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting and will be
available soon for public in its outlets. It was formally
released in New Delhi byPrime Minister Narendra Modion December 11, 2015, the
birthday of the President. The book has been edited by eminent author Gillian
Wright who has also contributed a chapter on life in the Rashtrapati Nilayam.
Award winning photographer Andre Jeanpierre Fanthome has taken the
photos. The chapters on Rashtrapati Nilayam are titled “The Supreme
Commander’s Southern Retreat: Bolarum”, “Of Presidents, Residents and their
Residence: The Story of the Rashtrapati Nilayam” and “The Southern Sojourn”.

Some of the important findings
contained in the book are:

· The Residency House,
Bolarum was constructed in 1833. Until then, the British Residency in Koti,
which was constructed in 1803, was the principal home of the Resident. The one
in Bolarum was built so the Resident could remain closer to his troops and away
from the Nizam’s court and the bazaars.

· The location of the
Residency House was carefully chosen. It is protected by the Secunderabad
cantonment to the south and the Bolarum cantonment to the north.

· Despite the tensions
that existed between the British and the Nizam during the entire nineteenth
century, the Resident and the ruler lived side by side as neighbours at
Bolarum.

· Although colonial in
appearance, the building was constructed using local materials and labour
provided by the Nizam’s Government.

· A quotation for the
electrification of the Residency House given in 1914 has been discovered which
provides the original layout of the building and organization of rooms. The
arrangement of rooms is distinctive of the British colonial style of
architecture, indicating that although the building was built and supervised by
local masons and contractors, it was designed by a British engineer.

· Another element of
colonial design was the separation of the kitchen from the main house. At the
Residency House, the two are connected by a vaulted tunnel with submarine-like
skylights, creating a fantastic and quirky route for a wholly domestic purpose.

· The simplicity of
the bungalow’s exterior was made up for by the grandeur of its interiors.
Remarkably, lying unseen for a century or more, records still survive that make
it possible to reconstruct a detailed picture of how the Residency House would
have looked.

· The
Residents’ wives aspired to standards nothing short of the Nizam’s.In a letter
to Sir Faridoon Jung, following the electrification of the Residency and the
replacement of lamps, Lady Violet Pinhey wrote, “…the present lighting are
those old chandeliers, very fine in themselves but, not having candles now in
their empty brackets, look very ugly. I want them made with lamps like H.H. has
at King Kothi”.

· In
the last decade leading up to Independence, the Resident gave up the use of the
Hyderabad Residency altogether and moved to Bolarum due to the activity at the
cantonment during the Second World War.

· Research
has revealed that thefirst mention of troops in this area comes from November
1782.Bolarum itself first became a military base when the Russell Brigade was
formed in 1812. It is not correct that Bolarum was an extension of Secunderabad
and developed in the mid 19thcentury.

· Bolarum
was always a small military cantonment, and was given the epithet,Chinna
Lashkaror small encampment (chinnameaning small in Telugu), by the
locals. Permanent construction in Bolarum began in 1841 (unlike
Secunderabad where it began after 1860).

· The
most prominent of the houses in Bolarum were the Residency, the house of his
First Assistant to the Resident, and the houses of the Nizam and Salar Jung.
The Holy Trinity Church in Bolarum dating from 1846 was constructed on land
donated by the Nizam, the cost of construction being borne by Queen Victoria.
Nearly a century and a half later, Queen Elizabeth II visited the church with
her husband Prince Phillip.

· From
records in the British Library it has been possible to trace the visits of
Viceroys to the Bolarum Residency. For example, in 1884 Lord Ripon stayed here
when he came to formally invest the young Nizam Mahboob Ali Khan with
administrative powers. In 1919, after the First World War in which over
74,000 Indian soldiers laid down their lives, Lord Chelmsford held a reception
here for British and Indian officers, and in 1944, in a crucial period of in
modern India’s history, Lord Wavell chose to meet the Resident one-to-one as
they played a round of golf on the neighbouring and historic course.

· In
1947, the Residency House was transferred to the Nizam’s government, along with
the Hyderabad Residency and other political buildings that were used by the
British.

· There
were several proposals for the use of the Residency House in the eventful year
between August 1947 and September 1948. The Department of Health of the Nizam’s
government wished to make it a tuberculosis sanatorium and the Director of
Education to use it as a public school that would have both Princes as
students.

· KM
Munshi, India’s Agent General (5thJanuary – 21stSeptember
1948) used it briefly as his residence on the recommendation of Lord
Mountbatten from the 5thto the 15th of January 1949.

· Following
the merger of Hyderabad State with the Indian Union, the Military Governor,
General J.N. Chaudhari, used it as his official residence. He entertained and
met members of Hyderabad society at the Residency House.

· The
first chief minister of Hyderabad State, M K Vellodi (1949-1952) was sworn-in
on the 1stof December 1949 in the grounds of the Residency House and
used the building as his Secretariat.

· In
1955, a decision was taken by the Government of India to make the Residency
House the President’s “permanent seasonal residence in the south” and to rename
the estate “Rashtrapati Nilayam.”

· Interestingly,
the suite of rooms in the east wing originally occupied by the Resident is
today allocated to the President’s staff. The western suite of rooms that
comprised the ballroom and rooms for guests of the Resident are today the
President of India’s private rooms.

· The
focus of the Residency House has shifted from the inside to the outside.
Beautifully maintained gardens and orchards now welcome visitors each winter,
much to the delight of the Hyderabadi citizen. The magnificent granite boulders
and grand old Tamarind, Mango, Banyan, Neem and Frangipani trees continue to
charm each guest. Groves of mango, pomegranate, guava, custard-apple and
coconut have been planted. A herbal garden and theNakshatragarden,
designed to represent the nine constellations, are meaningful additions to the
landscape of the Nilayam.

· The
Presidents of India have placed importance on the Nilayam as a potent symbol of
national integration as well as base to tour the south. The President’s
visits to the Nilayam have come to be called the ‘Southern Sojourn’.